Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Friends In Bands Who Play On Saturdays I
I have a couple different acquaintances who play free and accessible gigs most every Saturday during the day. That is a good thing to remember. As long as you don't act like Mel from Flight of the Conchords, folks who are in bands always seem to appreciate it when people they know come out to see them. And these gigs are wonderful because they don't require any exceptional disruptions of bedtimes and evening habits.
Kenny Lee and the Sundowners at Skidmore Market
Portland is many things. Among them, it is a blues town, and not just at the big July 4 weekend blowout at the Willamette Park Bowl south of the Hawthorne Bridge. There are blues musicians working every weekend, practically every night in town at places like The Candlelight, but also as regular weekend bookings in Vancouver, North Portland, even Oregon City.
The Skidmore Saturday market filled with booths for crafts people and artisans has always struck me as more of a tourist spot than a location that locals often frequent, but somehow it keeps on strong year after year. They have a couple spots for live bands to play. My longtime pal, Damon Brothers plays with this blues power trio which seems to feature a lot of guests at their afternoon gigs at the market. It can be quite a scene. The set I saw featured a one armed guy who could have been a pirate, a woman on the way up or way down on her medication ride dancing up a storm, and Portland's most illustrative Elvis impersonator. The impersonator no longer has a cardboard guitar and his glasses that are longer mended with scotch tape, he now wears a black Elvis in Vegas era jumpsuit complete with a rhinestone pattern. More evidence of the environment commented on by the the bumpersticker that reads Keep Portland Weird.
Anyway, it was fun to watch Damon and the Lee band do their thing for a little while, and reassuring to know that if I'm ever downtown on a Saturday, I can stop by here a bit of blues and say hi to an old pal.
posted by well-executed buffet at 2:38 PM
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